CAMIMH was established in 1998 and serves as the only national coalition representing the mental health sector across the continuum of non-governmental stakeholders. The core purpose of CAMIMH is to put mental illness and mental health on the national health and social policy agendas. Most of the major mental illness and mental health organizations in Canada are now members of CAMIMH including: Autism Society of Canada, Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention, Canadian Coalition for Seniors Mental Health, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Mental Health Association, Canadian Psychiatric Association, Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation, Canadian Psychological Association, Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Canada, Native Mental Health Association of Canada, National Network for Mental Health, Mood Disorders Society of Canada, Schizophrenia Society of Canada, Canadian Association of Social Workers, Canadian National Committee for Police Mental Health Liaison, Canadian Health Care Association and the Canadian Psychosocial Rehabilitation Association.
CAMIMH has been highly effective in forging collaborative national leadership on mental illness and mental health policy through public education, research, data collection and reporting, and policy frameworks to address major national systemic issues.
In September 2004, CAMIMH submitted a successful proposal to the Population Health Fund (PHFN) to respond to PHFN funding priorities. The MHL proposal was a response to the Chronic Disease - Integrated Approaches to Chronic Disease funding priority. It is a three-year project, which commenced in the fall of 2005. Prior to approval of the project, two related initiatives were conducted, for which funding was provided to CAMIMH from Health Canada under a project amendment as part of financial assistance for National Voluntary Organizations. These are the mental health literacy literature review and the initial exploratory focus groups, which were used in designing the questions for the survey and the second series of focus groups.
The mental health literacy project is the first in Canada to investigate the knowledge, beliefs and understanding that Canadians have about mental illness and mental health. Health literacy is defined as the degree to which people can obtain, process and understand basic health information and services they need to make acceptable health decisions. Mental health literacy may be understood similarly as knowledge, beliefs and abilities that enable the recognition, management or prevention of mental health problems. Enhanced mental health literacy is thought to confer a range of benefits: prevention, early recognition and intervention, and reduction of stigma associated with mental illness.